Category Archives: New Hampshire

An important news story by Patrick Condon in the Associated Press confirms what we have been highlighting for a long time -- Republicans who betray their base on marriage place their political future in serious jeopardy:

As some Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature weigh whether to support legalizing same-sex marriage, an analysis of gay-marriage votes from other states shows that GOP lawmakers who backed it often faced consequences, including loss of their seats.

... Republicans inclined to back gay marriage face risks.

"It was largely responsible for my loss," said Jean White, a former Republican state senator in Colorado whose 2011 vote for civil unions became an issue in a primary challenge by a fellow Republican...

According to roll call votes, in the eight times nationwide that state legislatures voted for gay marriage, just 47 Republicans bucked the party line out of many hundreds who voted against it.

Of those 47 Republicans who voted yes starting in 2009, 21 are in office today.

In New York, one of four Republican senators who supported gay marriage is still in the Legislature. One lost a primary, one retired, and one lost the general election after narrowly winning a bitter primary.

A New Hampshire Republican representative lost a primary after her 2009 vote for gay marriage, and in Maryland the former Senate Republican leader relinquished his leadership post when he started working with Democrats on a gay-marriage bill that passed last year.

"I got a lot of flak, a lot," said that senator, Allan Kittleman. He's planning to leave the Senate this year to run for a county office instead.

In Washington, which passed gay marriage in 2012, two of six Republicans who backed the bill are no longer in office.

Our congratulations to the new pro-marriage GOP contender for the New Hampshire governor's race:

Former Senate candidate Ovide Lamontagne (R) will face former state senator Maggie Hassen (D) in the open New Hampshire governor’s race after both sailed to primary wins Tuesday.

Lamontagne, an attorney who lost a 2010 Senate primary to now-Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and was also the state GOP’s gubernatorial nominee in 1996, easily dispatched former state representative Kevin Smith, taking 69 percent of the vote with 53 percent of precincts reporting.

... The general election between Lamontagne and Hassan is expected to be tight, with polling in the swing state showing the race within the margin of error. The Fix recently ranked New Hampshire as the second most likely state to flip control this year (out of 13 states holding contests). -- WaPo

"...a group of social conservatives and “politically active Christians of all denominations” have established a new nonprofit issues-advocacy group and state political action committee. They expect to have a “powerful impact” on the 2012 general election and the next session of the Legislature.

Families Across New Hampshire (FANH) is the brainchild of veteran Republican political strategist Michael Dennehy, a Concord lobbyist and former senior advisor to John McCain.

The financial goal for the PAC, Dennehy says, is to spend $150,000 to advocate for the election of “pro-family” candidates for state office during the 2012 elections and for the nonprofit to air issue-advocacy advertising.

While the prime focus will be on the general election, “We may get involved in some primaries if there is a clear distinction, and we will support pro-family Democrats as well,” Dennehy said.

The New Hampshire chapter of National Organization for Marriage launched a brutal ad campaign on Friday, targeting 87 Republican state representatives who voted against the recent bill to repeal the state’s law allowing same-sex marriage.

The ad accuses the legislators of misrepresenting their support for traditional marriage to voters when running for office, points out that every Republican presidential candidate opposes same-sex marriage, and singles out Manchester Rep. Michael Ball for a statement he made that the ad says “mocked the very institution of marriage that God himself authored.”

The National Organization For Marriage is criticizing Republican lawmakers who voted against repealing New Hampshire's gay marriage law in a newspaper ad and looking for people to run against them.

The full page ad New Hampshire newspapers on Friday says the Republicans betrayed the cause of marriage. The ad urges the public to contact the lawmakers and let them know they intend to hold them accountable for their vote. The ad also says the organization is looking for people faithful to traditional marriage willing to run against the lawmakers.

The organization has said it will spend $250,000 in New Hampshire to win repeal of the 2010 law.

"It's time for them to be held accountable for their vote." —Brian Brown, NOM president—

Washington, D.C. — The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) today launched a statewide newspaper advertising campaign to hold Republicans in the state House of Representatives accountable for failing to support HB 437, compromise legislation designed to repeal same-sex marriage while restoring civil unions for gay couples. The legislation was defeated in late March. The ads invite citizens interested in challenging Republicans who betrayed marriage to contact the NHforMarriage.com coalition.

"Dozens of House Republicans in New Hampshire betrayed the cause of marriage, betrayed the GOP party platform in support of traditional marriage, and stood in opposition to every major Republican candidate for president," said Brian Brown, NOM's president. "It's time for them to be held accountable for their vote."

HB 437 was compromise legislation that repealed same-sex marriage while restoring civil unions for gay couples. This was the law in New Hampshire before marriage was hijacked in 2009 by Democrats and Governor Lynch, who took thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from out of state gay marriage activists, yet never disclosed to voters their intent to redefine marriage.

"In 2010, NOM spent over $1 million helping to elect pro-marriage candidates in New Hampshire," Brown said. "We intend to play a significant role in supporting candidates this year as well. We invite pro-marriage candidates of either party, Republicans and Democrats, to step up and run for office so that we can help elect a pro-marriage legislative majority in November. The people of New Hampshire support marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and we will not rest until the Legislature corrects the mistake that was made in 2009."

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To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Anath Hartmann, [email protected], at 703-683-5004.

Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).

Standing Up For New Hampshire Families was, and is, a faux group funded from outside the state, run by a lobbyist. Measuring it’s effectiveness is merely a measure of the hypocrisy of Democrats who deride outside influence and the ignorance of Republicans who are too lazy to see where the message is coming from. The guy running it is Tyler Deaton. Tyler, like Mo Baxley before him, is propped up by national, out of state money, running their national, out of state agenda. It is neither local, nor grassroots, nor the pulse of public opinion unless the power of a nationally funded propaganda campaign counts.

The New Hampshire Republicans for Equality PAC (nHrFe), the latest, “popped up out of nowhere” web presence to splash ads across your facebook pages and web sites of New Hampshire, has something in common with Standing Up. Tyler Deaton is the front man for both (nHrFe, SUFNHF) and is even listed as the “Treasurer” of the nHrFe PAC.

Same hired gun. Same agenda. And probably the same out of state money. Not really New Hampshire. Not really Republicans. Not that surprising.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has spoken, killing legislation to repeal the state’s 2-year-old law legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian couples last week.

But this fight is far from over. It now shifts to the ballot box, where the four candidates for governor present a stark choice: Two Republicans back repeal, and two Democrats are sworn to veto any such effort.

The National Organization for Marriage and the local Cornerstone Action New Hampshire combined during the 2010 elections to spend more than $1.5 million to try to defeat Gov. John Lynch and elect a historic Republican super-majority.

... National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown said his organization has no intention of giving up after last week’s vote.

“Because of the vote, we now have a target list,” Brown said. “Both Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith support traditional marriage. We will be very involved in the general election.”

Meanwhile, internal discussions have begun among the National Organization for Marriage, Cornerstone and like-minded socially conservative groups about how to protect their legislators who backed repeal of same-sex marriage and add to their numbers in the November election.

The move to repeal gay marriage may have been put to rest for now, but the battle is likely to continue, legislators say.

...The bill's prime sponsor, Rep. David Bates, R-Windham, said it is foolish to think the issue will not be back before lawmakers, particularly if there is a change in the governor's office.

...“If we have a governor the next term more favorable to traditional marriage,” Bates said Thursday, “that will change the dynamics considerably.”

... The two Democratic candidates for governor, former state senators Maggie Hassan of Exeter and Jackie Cilley of Barrington, support gay marriage. The two announced Republican candidates, Ovide Lamontagne and Kevin Smith, oppose it.

... The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) plans to use its national donor base to raise at least $250,000 for television commercials and candidate donations to support candidates who favor repealing the law.

The group's president, Brian Brown, warned Wednesday it would target lawmakers who voted against the repeal.

“This is a sad day for New Hampshire families who in 2010 had elected what they thought was a solid pro-marriage majority,” Brown said. “They were once again let down by politicians who promised them one thing and then left them at the altar when the vote was on the line. These legislators will be held accountable.”

Washington, DC — The following statement made be attributed to Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM):

"We are very disappointed in the failure of the New Hampshire House of Representatives to pass compromise legislation restoring marriage and providing for civil unions for same-sex couples. This was the law prior to marriage being hijacked by legislators who accepted hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions from gay marriage supporters without ever telling voters they intended to redefine marriage. We consider any vote cast against HB 437 to be a vote in favor of gay marriage, and we will act to hold every legislator accountable for such a vote.

"While we are disappointed in this vote today, we remain committed to giving the voters of New Hampshire the opportunity to restore the traditional definition of marriage. The only time gay marriage activists are able to win is when they can bypass the people and get activist judges or legislators to do their bidding, usually after plying them with large campaign contributions.

"This is a sad day for New Hampshire families who in 2010 had elected what they thought was a solid pro-marriage majority. They were once again let down by politicians who promised them one thing and then left them at the altar when the vote was on the line. These legislators will be held accountable."

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To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray (x130), [email protected], or Anath Hartmann, [email protected], at 703-683-5004.

Paid for by The National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown, president. 2029 K Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006, not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. New § 68A.405(1)(f) & (h).

New Hampshire Republican State Senator Fenton Groen in the Concord Monitor argues that Democratic supporters of gay marriage were "turned out of office" in 2010 after voting to redefine marriage the year before:

In the next few weeks the New Hampshire House and Senate will debate and vote on HB 437, the bill that will restore the traditional definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.

...Now is the time to keep our promise to restore traditional marriage. I believe that is what citizens expect from those they elect to represent them - to keep the promises they made in their campaigns.

Let's talk about what the people of New Hampshire said about marriage with their votes in the 2010 election.

The House passed gay marriage by a thin 186-179 margin. So what happened to those 186 representatives who voted for same-sex marriage? Nearly two-thirds of them, 122 of the 186, were not re-elected...

... Twenty-five Democrats voted against gay marriage in 2008. Nearly 60 percent of them won re-election, compared to only 34 percent of those who voted in favor of gay marriage. It is distinctly possible that the outcome of the 2010 election would have been substantially different if more of Democrats had voted against same sex-marriage!

And how did the voters treat the 23 Democrats who were conspicuously absent for the vote on same-sex marriage? Not very well! Fourteen of them, more than 60 percent, were not re-elected.

What happened in the Senate? Same-sex marriage was passed on a 13-11 vote. Thirteen Democrats voted for same-sex marriage. Nine of them, a whopping 69 percent, were not re-elected! One Democrat senator voted against gay marriage. He was re-elected. In fact, every senator who voted against gay marriage and ran for re-election was re-elected!

My opponent and I both took principled stands on opposite sides of the marriage issue. The citizens of my district sent me to Concord to do what I said I would do. I will do all I can to keep my word to the voters of Senate District 6 and passionately support the restoration of traditional marriage.

I believe the 2010 election results made it pretty clear that is what the majority of voters want us to do.

In 2009, however, the Democratic-controlled legislature followed well-funded social activists from New York and Washington, D.C. down the rabbit hole of a radical agenda aimed at making gay marriage the law of the land in as many states as possible.

Despite an economic crisis that crippled New Hampshire like no other since the Great Depression, these social activists successfully persuaded lawmakers to take up a gay marriage law for which there was little appetite — outside a small cadre of liberal democrats — before even bothering to pass a state budget.

Three years later, the same gay marriage lobby that ignored the state's economic needs to enact a gay marriage law it bought and paid for is now using the economy as an excuse to protect it.

... These outside social activists, and wealthy activist donors prompted democrats to fast track gay marriage in the House and Senate when their party took control of the legislature.

In response, a host of bright, strong conservatives campaigned in 2010 for the office of State Representative on a promise to respect the true will of the people by fighting to restore traditional marriage. Now is the time for New Hampshire voters to support these courageous representatives, who are doing exactly as they promised.

It is time for conservatives to undo the damage caused by a radical wing of liberal social activists, and by lawmakers who put activist gay marriage donors before the people they serve.

Republicans in the legislature have one, last opportunity to stand up for the people of New Hampshire against the powerful gay marriage lobby. They must not let down the families of New Hampshire.

Tomorrow the New Hampshire legislature will vote on a bill to repeal same-sex marriage.

Have your representatives heard from you this week?

Our opponents know what is at stake, and they're pulling out all the stops. New Hampshire is poised to be the first state legislature to repeal same-sex marriage. We have a chance to make history!

Two years ago, out-of-state gay millionaires flooded the state with money to buy same-sex marriage. Then the people of New Hampshire spoke, taking back their state and electing a pro-marriage majority to the state legislature.

It's time to speak once again!

Tomorrow morning, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on HB 437, the bill to repeal same-sex marriage. It is CRITICAL that your representatives hear from you this week.

Here's what I need you to do:

Click here to look up the phone number for your representative. Same-sex marriage activists have been phone banking and your representatives need to hear from their own constituents. Let your representatives know that you stand for marriage, and that you sent them to Concord for a purpose—to take back New Hampshire from out-of-state money and special interests. Phone calls are especially critical in these final days before the vote. (Please call the district office number to reach your state representatives.)

Karen Grube, an early supporter of Prop 8, with a message to the New Hampshire legislature:

In considering House Bill 437, the bill to repeal the gay marriage law passed in 2009, every member of the New Hampshire legislature needs to be reminded of why the voters elected veto-proof Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate in 2010. One obvious reason was the underhanded manner in which Democrat Senate President Sylvia Larsen violated Senate rules in order to pass the bill allowing same-sex marriage.

... Another reason they did that was to send a clear message to Governor Lynch that the voters didn’t like his deceiving them on his stand on same-sex marriage. He campaigned on his support for traditional marriage and then betrayed them by signing the same-sex marriage legislation into law. In 2010, the voters decided they didn’t want to chance his doing anything like that again.

... I would remind Representative Cohn and every member of the General Court that the only poll that counts is the one at the ballot box. When their voices were so outrageously silenced on this issue by the previous legislature and the Governor, the voters spoke as clearly as they possibly could in 2010. This time they chose to elect Republicans to the House and Senate who they believed would actually listen to them and restore the legal definition of marriage as quickly as possible to what it was prior to being redefined. Keeping that in mind, Republicans should not only vote to pass HB 437, but work together to pass it by the two-thirds majority necessary should the Governor be so arrogant as to veto it. -- Ruth Institute Blog

New Hampshire House of Representatives Will Decide the Fate of Traditional Marriage Wednesday, March 21st

Take Action: Come to the State House at 8am, March 21st to Pass Out Information and Talk To Representatives as They Enter Reps Hall to Vote on HB 437

Please come show your support for one man-one woman traditional marriage on Wednesday, March 21st. Join Cornerstone as we greet Representatives with flyers and words of encouragement outlining the reasons why they should vote to restore traditional marriage. If you can't stay for the vote, please come and greet them so they see that there are many voters that expect them to vote to sustain the traditional family unit in New Hampshire.